The Postcard
by lookingforpaperstars
Summary: Miranda gets a postcard from Hong Kong; from the love of her life. How will she deal with it, even when she isn't over Gary properly? Will there be an unexpected event taking place after the postcard has been received? - This is an alternative interpretation to the ep where Miranda gets a postcard. Please R&R.
1. The postcard

"Miranda!"

Stevie's voice instantly brought Miranda out of her peaceful slumber. She rolled over extremely slowly to face her small friend, but she didn't open her eyes or attempt to communicate with Stevie; she wanted to find out what she wanted before putting in the extraordinary amount of effort to actually move. Moving wasn't something that Miranda was a fan of – and if she could, she would avoid it at all costs.

"There's a postcard from Gary!" Stevie squeaked, waving the postcard in front of Miranda's face.

Stevie's voice further brought Miranda out of her semi-slumber, and she opened her eyes in a flash and attempted to sit up, but her body was having none of it. She flopped back down onto the bed, and the bed squeaked in protest. Both women ignored this – they were far too interested in the postcard from Gary. It was still unread, evidently, since Stevie was just as excited – and since, Miranda realised after glancing at her clock, it was only 9am, the post would've only just come; which meant that Stevie had ran straight up to her flat with it.

"Give!" Miranda blurted out before she could stop herself, and Stevie instantly handed it over. Miranda grabbed it eagerly, and sat herself up slowly in order to begin reading it properly. Her face dropped as she read it, and her back slumped downward, and she slowly laid down to begin to curl up.

"What does it say?" Stevie asked curiously, and Miranda just flung the card at her, which ended up landing on the floor. Stevie picked it up and began to read aloud:  
_"Having a blast in Hong Kong. Everyone is so lovely. One person in particular…_ What's that? Oh, it seems to be… A kind of love heart smiley face…" Stevie paused to examine this face, which causes Miranda to groan lightly; a groan full of pain. _"Think I may be in love. Reply soon; want to hear how the restaurant is. Love, G."  
_Stevie, at lack of better word, was outraged. She placed the postcard down onto Miranda's bedside table with a thud, and scowled harshly, a low growl escaping her lips. Normally, Miranda would make a comment about this – but given what she had just read, she missed the opportunity.

"How on earth can he say he's in love with someone else?!" Stevie boomed (so loudly that it echoed throughout the room and even made Miranda jump a little), frowning, her eyebrows furrowing in the centre, her cheeks turning a little red with anger. "Does he not realize he's in love with you?" she asked, and even though the question was rhetorical, Miranda answers anyway in a dull voice.

"He was never in love with me, Stevie. That was just naïve optimism." Miranda mused, her tone reflecting the pessimism and unhappiness that was running through her body and would most likely do so for quite some time. Even to this day, Miranda still hadn't quite recovered from the first time she became aware of her love for him – how was she to get over the fact that he was falling for someone else? How was she to continue with her daily life now and pretend everything was okay? "Move; I want to cocoon myself." Miranda whispered grumpily to Stevie, who was now sat on Miranda's bed, and instantly cocooned herself in her duvet the second she moved, a low groan slipping her lips, though muffled by the fact that her face was stuffed into her pillows.

"You can't let it affect you like this Miranda! What would Heather Small say?" Stevie asked, extending her arm to pat Miranda softly, giving her a gentle nudge.

"I don't know, I'm too depressed to think." Was Miranda's response, which made Stevie groan with disdain. She was angry at Gary, extremely so; and she didn't want to see her best friend go one hundred steps backward in the process she had already made in an attempt to get over Gary and move on with her life.

"She'd ask you what you'd done today to make you feel proud!" Stevie urged, sitting herself directly next to her best friend – who, actually, was more like a sister. She inhaled a deep breath, before speaking again. "To which you should be able to answer: Miss Small, Miss Heather Small, today I got a postcard off of Gary and instead of curling up in a ball and eating away my feelings, I got up and helped Stevie run the shop and I went out and got some new clothes and then I made plans to go out with Stevie in order to find a new sensible, loving man, to take my mind off of Gary." She exhaled sharply after finishing that sentence, and she slowly bowed her head in order to allow her eyes to meet with Miranda's. "Well?"

"I guess you're right…" she whispered, rolling herself over onto her back, thus unwrapping herself from the duvet cocoon.

"Good girly! Work not shirk, hm?" Stevie said, sitting herself up and strutting out of the bedroom. "I'll make breakfast."

With a huff, Miranda sat herself up, and then stood herself up from the bed. She walked over to the small chair set in the corner of her room, where a pile of clothes were sat. She picked out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and got herself dressed and washed before exiting the room to her friend. "The new me shall reign-eth!" Miranda mused to Stevie, nodding her head assertively. "I can get over Gary, easily. So, how shall we do it?"

"First, I think you need to talk to Miss Small!" Stevie said; her voice projecting the excitement about her friends' new attitude; however genuine it was. She pulled up their signature Heather Small cut out, and sang on the top of her voice: "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TODAY TO MAKE YOU FEEL PROOOUD?"

"Well, hello to you Miss Heather Small,"

"Hello."

"Today, I got a postcard from Gary Preston; and instead of letting it affect me, I'm getting on with my life and I'm going to have some serious fun."

Stevie dropped the cut out, and clapped loudly, a bright grin upon her face. "Right, where do we start?" she paused, though it wasn't a long enough pause to allow Miranda to respond. "Shopping! Quick, get ready. I'll be waiting for you down in the shop." With that, Stevie exited the room. Miranda sighed instantly, and turned.

"I hate shopping. There's nothing worse. You find something you like, look at the rails and find that there are only sizes available that you wouldn't even be able to fit your arm into. And the clothes you do find that are in the right size always look as if they belong in the section devoted to Grandma's. And I refuse to step foot into big and long. I will find something, I'm sure, even if it is a bit of a squeeze… Now do excuse me whilst I eat my breakfast and get myself sorted. I'll probably have a little bit of a cry… But shush, don't tell Stevie. Now shoo, of you go!"

**A/N: I'm leaving this seemingly in the middle of the story because I have somewhere I want to go with it; and I want it to be a multiple chapter fic. Will most likely be posting the second chapter before the night is through. Please R&R.**


	2. Unexpected event

After a good long cry, Miranda was finally ready to go downstairs and meet Stevie to go shopping in an attempt to distract herself from what was going on with Gary; but honestly, the words upon the postcard just kept playing over and over in her mind; and no matter what she thought of, somehow, her thoughts always went back to Gary. If she thought about a nice cake, her thoughts went back to Gary. If she thought about watching TV, she thought about Gary. Every darn thing caused her to think about Gary and she just couldn't escape it, and it was hurting both her heart and her mind. She just wanted five minutes of peace and quiet, without thinking about him. It had never hurt this bad to think about him. She supposed that it was because before today, there was the slightest bit of optimism lying within her heart and her mind that somehow, maybe, Gary would love her and they would get together. And now, after the postcard, the optimism had promptly changed into pessimism. That optimism that she had had possessed used to get her through those days where she missed Gary and was feeling lonely and those days where she just couldn't get the image of them two together out of her mind. Now, who, or what did she have to help her through that? Nothing; there was no one else she could, or wanted to, focus her energy on. She wanted Gary Preston, and it was as simple as that.

Miranda let out a loud sigh as that thought passed through her mind, and she felt tears prickling in her eyes once more; but she furiously blinked them away, refusing to let herself cry again. She wanted to spend today with Stevie, hoping to get over the postcard the best she could and trying to distract herself the best she could. She was determined not to let this get to her more than it already had, and she knew that if she wanted to feel better about it, she had to make herself feel better about it – it wouldn't just happen.

With that thought, Miranda stood up quickly and walked over to the front door. She grabbed her keys and slipped her shoes on, and swiftly exited the flat before she could have second thoughts and give one of her dodgy excuses to Stevie. She swiftly walked down the stairs, and walked straight over to the counter, where Stevie was leaning.

"Where've you been? I had to deal with youths. ALONE!" She mused, adding extra – over the top – emphasis to the fact that she had to deal with them alone.

"YOUTHS!" Miranda exclaimed, her eyes widening, before she shakes her head. "Sorry Stevie. I was getting myself ready…" she mumbled, turning her head briefly and biting her lip nervously; hoping that her best friend wouldn't pick up on the fact that she had, in fact, spent the last hour or so crying her eyes out. But, of course, hoping that her closest friend (and the person who knew her the best) wouldn't pick up on the fact that she had been crying was a ridiculous hope to have.

Stevie gave Miranda a once-over, before looking back to her face and looking at her dead on in the eyes. "You've been crying for the past hour over that postcard, haven't you?"

"No, I uh… It took me ages to get down here because there were leaves on the carpet, see… They were a nightmare to shift…" She mused, raising her eyebrows. She turned her head to the left and whispered "help."

Stevie let out a hearty chuckle, and rolled her eyes. "I'm sure that's the truth." She paused, and stepped out from behind the counter and approached Miranda. "Come on girly, to the shops!" she exclaimed happily, doing her 'emergency walk' out of the shop. Miranda couldn't help but mimic that, though she pulled hers to a halt in order to change the 'open' sign to 'closed' before allowing the door to slam behind her. She knew that Clyde would look after the shop anyway, so locking it wasn't necessary. She sped up her walk in order to catch up with her friend, and after she had done so, she walked beside her normally; both women now aware that they were in the wide open spaces of public terrain.

"Where first?" she asked Stevie, looking down at her briefly before looking ahead of her, allowing her to become ever so slightly nosy.

"Big and long?" Stevie suggested, looking up at Miranda, who scoffed and shook her head.

"We aren't going there, it's what I call, degrading." Both Stevie and Miranda laughed; but Miranda's wasn't filled with true humour – hers was just a bit of an exhale, it possessed no true feeling.

"Whatever shop we come across first, then." Stevie replied quickly, not giving Miranda the option to refuse – she knew full well that if she reeled off all of Miranda's options, she would happily say no to each of them – even if one involved food – and go back to her bed. And honestly, Miranda wished that Stevie would give her that option. She didn't feel like being out in public. She didn't even feel like being awake. She was in too much pain. But, she knew that lingering over the pain just wouldn't help her. So, she shrugged the thought to the back of her mind and attempted to focus on Stevie and stay upbeat.

Two hours had passed since they had set out on their journey to attempt to find Miranda something nice to wear on a night out, and they returned both unsuccessful and disheartened. They had visited many shops – even big and long, despite Miranda's protesting – and they just couldn't find anything that would attract anyone. Stevie's comments hadn't helped Miranda remain upbeat, though; she kept stating that many items of clothing that Miranda liked would make her look "mumsy" and that she would look "like a tramp" if she attempted to dress in clothes aimed at younger people.

Defeated, they had decided to come back to the shop and to think up another action plan. Miranda was dreading hearing Stevie's other proposals in regards to action plans, because she knew that they would either be over the top or just darn right impossible. Or perhaps a combination of the two?

"Complete nightmare." Miranda mused aloud as she stepped into the shop behind Stevie, who had already sat down behind the counter and had pulled out a overly large novelty pen and a small notebook. Miranda flipped the sign back to open, and made her way back into the shop, pulling up a small stool and sitting herself down on it.

"What do you have in mind, then, Stevie?" Miranda asked, bowing her head to rest in her hands, a shallow sigh escaping her lips. She allowed her eyes to drift closed, and she allowed her mind to think all of the thoughts that she had pushed away beforehand in order to stop herself from crying in public – there's nothing more humiliating than that, as her mother would say.

After a few minutes of Stevie not replying, Miranda lifted her head up and looked at her friend, expecting to see her writing frantically on the pad, but she didn't see that, no, she saw her staring dumbly over at the stairs that led to Miranda's flat. "What on earth, Stevie?" she mumbled, turning her head to follow Stevie's line of gaze – and her jaw dropped open when she clocked what Stevie was looking at.

Miranda stood up instantly, and crossed the floor of the shop, faster than she had ever moved in her life. "Gary! What are you doing here?!"

Gary's response came instantly. "I realised I forgot something." He whispered, bowing his head to Miranda's level and kissing her firmly on the lips. Miranda's eyes stayed open, due to the surprise and the shock – she simply hadn't expected that to happen today! She kissed back nonetheless, though, and her hand came up to gingerly rest upon his thigh.

Gary pulled away from the kiss slowly, and looked up into Miranda's eyes – fear and worry etched upon his face, but there was also a sense of relief that Miranda could pick up on. "I love you." Was all he whispered, and Miranda practically melted into a pool of putty on the floor. "It was you I was talking about in the postcard." He whispered, tentatively, and in the background, Stevie could be heard cursing him, but Miranda shushed her with a simple hand gesture.

"You had me miserable, Gary." She whispered sadly, her eyes moving away from his, their gazes no longer connecting.

"I know, and I'm sorry, but I just thought you should know that I do love you, with all of my heart. You're all I've ever wanted, really. I went to Hong Kong to try and get over you, because I didn't think you felt the same-"

Miranda cut him off mid-sentence with a kiss. "I do love you." She whispered, a smile coming to her lips; a bright smile, which brought out the small dimples. "I love you, Gary Preston."

With that said, Gary pressed another kiss to Miranda's lips, and they got lost in each other.

"Finally." The couple heard Stevie whisper, and all they could do were smile against each other's lips…

**A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed it! I definitely enjoyed writing it. I know when Gary left for Hong Kong, I was slapped right in the feels; and I always wanted an alternative event to what actually happened; so here it is. I hope you guys liked it. Please review! :D**


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